The Quebec government is investing two million dollars in the creation of a Franco-Quebec research chair on freedom of expression. This chair is created jointly by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). The work of the chair will focus on democracy and fundamental rights, on religious beliefs and identities, as well as on creation and censorship.
This week, the FRQ announced the names of the four Quebec co-holders of the chair. They are Solange Lefebvre, from the University of Montreal, Pierre Rainville, from Laval University, Mathilde Barraband, from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, and Maryse Potvin, from the University of Quebec to Montreal. On the French side, the co-holders of the chair appointed by the CNRS are Thomas Hochmann, from the University of Paris Nanterre, Karimi Hanane, from the University of Strasbourg, Thibaud Boncourt, from the University Panthéon Sorbonne, and Anna Arzoumanov, from Sorbonne. University.
The creation of this chair comes as freedom of expression remains a hot topic. We have seen this in Quebec recently, both in terms of freedom of expression for university professors and during the debate surrounding the adoption of Bill 21 on secularism or that of cultural appropriation and freedom on social networks.
“I think that freedom of expression is indeed a subject that concerns university life,” says Louise Poissant, scientific director of the FRQ Société-Culture. In many universities, and this was highly publicized, professors felt like they couldn’t use certain words, they couldn’t refer to certain texts. They had to censor themselves or else take a lot of precautions and sometimes cut things out of their course. There are really problems almost everywhere, even in countries where this is a recognized principle and enshrined in law. In France, a high school teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded in October 2020 after showing his students caricatures of Muhammad. Thus, the debate on freedom of expression affects the social, legal, educational and artistic fields. We are therefore talking, for the chair, of taking an “interdisciplinary scientific” look at these issues.
“Several aspects of freedom of expression question politics, which must make laws,” continues Ms.me Pungent. It’s the same with social media. It’s very complex. Can we say anything on social media? »
A France-Quebec bilateral committee will have the mission of “clearly identifying the major issues that should be developed” by the chair. The latter could also be invited to make recommendations to governments in the area of legislation.
The creation of the chair is the result of an agreement between the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, and that of France, Jean Castex, who held this position until May 2022. He has since been replaced by Élisabeth Borne . The meeting between Prime Ministers has been delayed several times, in particular due to elections taking place on both sides of the Atlantic. We are currently planning one in February.